Survival Straps™ Stories

Survival Straps® was very fortunate last Friday to host the Wounded Warrior Project® Soldier Ride here at our offices in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. Over 50 Wounded Warriors showed up and rode more than 40 miles over 3 days. They are all healing from things like physical injuries, traumatic brain injuries and post traumatic stress. To witness these men and women suiting up, interacting with each other and encouraging each other was a thing of beauty. They were an incredible inspiration, not only to us, but to every person they rode by.

At the end of the ride on Friday they presented us with a WWP flag in which all the Warriors signed. We will cherish this flag forever. We have been pretty outspoken about our support for the men and women in uniform. And yes we have donated money and lots of products to try and help. But when a Warrior comes up to you, shakes your hand and thanks you for helping and being a voice for them, it will knock your socks off. Survival Straps® will continue to do everything we possibly can to help support these incredible men and women.

Thank you for believing in our mission to make great products in the USA that help to support America's Heroes. Doing business with us over the last 8 years has enabled us to be involved in things like Soldier Ride to try and help make a difference. Thank You!

In light of the blizzards that have recently been circulating, we thought we would share a story of how Survival Straps saved the day in a snowy situation:

Casey out of Jacksonville, Florida wrote:

My husband, Troy, and his co-worker/friend, Eric, are Supervisors for a Gold Mine in Alaska. Part of their job is to hike in to the wilderness to stake new claims and test new equipment. Back in April, they had to hike several miles, over mountain ridges and through the Alaskan Wilderness in an attempt to capture a cell signal to bounce back to camp. There was only one pair of modern snowshoes, so they took the antique pair off of the lodge wall for Eric to use. Several miles into their hike, the bottom of Eric’s snow shoes fell apart.

Turning around and trying to trudge back through the 4-inch-plus deep snow without the shoes was NOT an option. Troy knew he had to do something, so he sacrificed his Survival Strap to use, along with branches from the trees, to fix the snow shoes. Because of the paracord, they were able to fashion a makeshift bottom to the shoe, continue their work and complete the hike back to camp!

Have any cool stories about how you use your Survival Strap? Don’t forget to let us know! Email us your story with pictures to stories@survivalstraps.com.

“I’ve owned the firefighter survival bracelet for over a year and deployed it for the first time yesterday. When a 16 year old fell over 60 feet from a waterfall and landed on a rocky outcropping, my fire department was dispatched to respond. I hiked in with the engine and rescue companies to begin treating the patient, who suffered serious injury and required chest decompression in the field. While the high angle rescue team was setting up to hoist the patient out, we used my survival bracelet to help shuttle medical equipment to the patient’s side. A fantastic product that performed exactly as I expected. Thank you for such a well-made, American product!

You never know when your SurvivalStraps gear will come in handy. Our American-made gear is built from military grade 550 paracord and is so tough it can move 200 pound logs to rescue people who are pinned under them! Read Adrienne Wimmer’s story below of how her Survival Strapped saved her 4th of July. We’re glad she was strapped!

Hello my name is Adrienne Wimmer and my husband and I purchased the bracelet. As a medic it was an extra tool for me. Unfortunately I had to use it this 4th of July.

We live in Currituck, North Carolina on the water. We had a horrible storm come through a few days before blowing debris all over. On July 4th we were swimming and jetsking and tubing when my 13 year old daughter Alexis stepped on something very sharp. It ended up being a huge log weighing well over 200lbs! The adults and my daughter were floating it up to remove it when it slipped and pinned her lower leg under the water. She started to panic and was screaming so I undid my strap and made a loop and tied a knot slipped it around the end of the logg and she was free. Without this things could have been very bad and she could have been seriously hurt. Thank god I had this. Pictures attached of the water. The log out of the water with strap attached and my daughter.

Every day at Survival Straps we receive word from a customer or two who has used his or her Survival Straps gear in an emergency! Have you used your Survival Strap recently? Send us your story and some pictures and we’ll send you a replacement strap. Just shoot us an email (stores@survivalstraps.com), or send us a letter-the long handed way-to 1106 A1A N, Suite 100, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, 32082 with your information and we’ll get back to you. Here’s a story from our friend Beth of hows she used her strap during a Half Ironman!

T-minus 30 minutes until race time (5am) of the Half Ironman Florida 70.3 we noticed a missing piece of equipment to secure a water bottle to our athlete’s bike. After searching for possible fixes, the one and only true cure was my survival strap (light duty survival strap with plastic clasp). The survival strap was able to affix the bottle to the bike effectively. The athlete completed a 56 mile bike course without the bottle budging at all and claiming that the survival strap worked better than the normal rubber band mechanism. Thanks for a wonderful product we are looking forward to finding an even more awesome way of using it again!

Every day at Survival Straps we receive word from a customer or two who has used his or her Survival Straps gear in an emergency! Have you used your Survival Strap recently? Send us your story and some pictures and we’ll send you a replacement strap. Just shoot us an email (stores@survivalstraps.com), or send us a letter-the long hand way to 1106 A1A N, Suite 100, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, 32082 with your information and we’ll get back to you. Here’s a story from our friend Jeff of how he’s used his strap!

My name is Jeff Bova and I am the Transportation Captain for a new television series called “Longmire”.

We are shooting the television show in and around the Santa Fe, NM area and as such, move great distances between locations. We move a lot at night after working 16 or more hours. Two nights ago we were moving from Las Vegas, NM to Glorietta, NM and I was working on getting the last two cast trailers on the move to the next location. Of course nothing goes wrong until the middle of the night, with limited resources and time. The last trailer’s light cord wouldn’t stay connected and we can’t drive 50 miles with no lights at 11pm. After trying unsuccessfully to jam the connection in, I finally sacrificed my survival straps bracelet, which I use as a medical alert bracelet, to tie the connector in place. We made the move successfully with no further problems and thanks to the rigging of the umbilical, no ticket from the New Mexico State Police. I purchased the survival strap first, because of your support of the wounded warrior program, but also because of the business that I am in and to use as a medical alert identification tag. I thank you for a great product and for your support of our wounded veterans. I will be placing my order for a replacement today.

Indebted to your company,

Jeffrey P Bova

Transportation Captain “Longmire” Television Series for the A&E Network/Sheppard-Robin Productions.

It’s always exciting to read Survival Stories and see pictures that our customers send in via email (stories@survialstraps.com) or in a good old-fashioned letter. Here’s a story we received yesterday of how our handy, 550 military spec paracord bracelet helped to save Troy Curnow’s hide while he was hiking in Alaska:

“I purchased a survival strap for my husband (the wilderness adventurer) while we were living in Colorado. We moved back to Jax, Fl last year, and come to find out you guys were based here all along! That’s besides the point, though, because my husband left in February to work on a Gold Mine in Alaska, and actually had to use his survival strap in a survival situation! Here’s his story:

My husband, Troy, and his co-worker/friend, Eric, are Supervisors for a Gold Mine in Alaska. Part of their job is to hike into the wilderness to stake new claims, and test new equipment. Back in April, they had to hike several miles, over mountain ridges and through the Alaskan Wilderness in an attempt to capture a cell signal to bounce back to the camp. There was only 1 pair of modern snowshoes, so they took the antique pair off of the lodge wall for Eric to use.

Several miles into their hike, the bottom of Eric’s snow shoes fell apart. Turning around and trying to trudge back through the 4+’ deep snow with out the shoes was NOT an option. Troy knew he had to do something, so he sacrificed his Survival Strap to use, along with branches from the trees, to fix the snow shoes.

Because of the paracord, they were able to fashion a makeshift bottom to the shoe, continue their work and complete the hike back to camp!

Thank you,

Casey”

How have you used your Survival Straps gear? Send your pictures and stories to stories@survivalstraps.com. If you use it, we’ll replace it-for free! How’s that for a lifetime warranty?

We love the Survival Stories customers send into us about the many incredible ways they have used their Survival Straps gear. Here’s a great story from Master-at-Arms Petty Officer 3rd Class, Kirk Lites, of how his Survival Strap helped him out!

“Greetings!

My name is Kirk Lites. I am currently serving in the United States Navy as a Master-at-Arms, and am currently located in Sicily, Italy. I ordered a Survival Strap bracelet from your company about a month ago and was actually excited to be able to use it a few days ago. Here is the story as to why I broke the bracelet down:

It all started as a regular day at work, get up before the sun, arm up, take over the watch at the main gate here on base. About 2 hours into our shift my supervisor began to have trouble opening a drawer full of M9s in our weapons safe. After about an hour of pulling and prying on the drawer to little or no avail, we had to call the duty armorer (the safe expert) to see if there was anything he would be able do to get this drawer open. He arrived and he again tried pulling and prying, event went so far as to borrow as ASP baton from another sentry to lodge in the drawer for leverage to pry it open. Still nothing. He takes a step back, scratches his head and says “You know, we could really use some 550 paracord right about now.” Lucky us because I carry 2 of your straps in my duty bag. I say to him “I actually have some in a bracelet that I ordered from survivalstraps.com!” We went back and forth for a second about how he didnt want to break up my bracelet, and I explained to him your websites policy. Finally he gave in and allowed me to use my bracelet. Once we got the cord out and ready to go The duty armorer, myself, and another gate sentry all 3 began to pull on the weapons drawer and after 4 good tugs the drawer slid open and we were able to continue our daily duties as gate sentries. The drawer actually had an M9 handgun lodged between the top of the safe and a hinge on the back side of the drawer. We may have damaged the weapon, but all in all, your bracelet kept us from having to take apart the safe as well as the drawer to remove the weapon that was stuck!

Thanks for your support of the military and a quality bracelet!!

Very respectfully,

Kirk E. Lites, Jr. “

Have you used your survival strap? Send us your story and a picture of how you’ve used your Survival Straps gear and we’ll replace it for free (shoot us an email at stories@survivalstraps.com)!

We love to hear stories from our customers of how they’ve used their Survival Straps® gear in an emergency! Have a story? Email it with photos to stories@survivalstraps.com!

“Howdy fine folks at Survival Straps! My sister got me and my brothers these bracelets for christmas, and I finally have a cool story as to how I used mine.

My family and I took a vacation to Minnesota. We stayed in a cabin on Eagle Lake in Bigfork MN. One windy day my father and I decided to test our sailing skills and pull the sail boat out of the garage. The boat is older and has some wear, but it seemed solid so we hit the water. The wind was strong, blowing us over and flipping the boat a couple of times (given we are not the most experienced sailors). After we made it out of our bay the wind really picked up, and the old boat parts starting giving out. We had to re-tie the sail down a couple of times and after one final tip over the rope and pulley system holding the boom down snapped, a cotter pin had broken, leaving the boat un-usable. We had no tools with us to straighten and re-install the cotter pin so we were stuck in the middle of the lake, then I remembered I was wearing my Survival Straps Survival Bracelet!

I untied the two ends and used about a foot of the strap to secure the pulley that had come loose, which successfully held the boom down, allowing us to sail back to the cabin safely and soundly! I was glad I was wearing the bracelet, without it, we would have had to paddle back a very long way or wait for a stranger to come give us a tow. Thanks for saving the sailing day! Seth Bernardez”

One of the things we love here at Survival Straps are the stories customers send into us about the many incredible ways they have used their straps. Here’s a great story from Kevin Updegrove of how his Survival Strap saved his vacation!

“It’s not often that I take the time to write a company about their products but I believe it’s important to recognize excellence. Survival Straps embodies everything that is good about American Business. I particularly like the fact that the company supports our troops. As a former Marine, it is ingrained in me to be prepared for any circumstance…and well…let’s face it, these things are pretty cool so, I bought a desert camo strap last October. Fast forward to March. My family and I were on vacation in Breckenridge, CO picking up a rental car. There were 8 of us and we had rented the largest SUV available. Since we were planning to rent our ski gear on the mountain, we thought there would be plenty of room for the luggage and the lone snow board that one of our friends brought along.

After stuffing (and I mean STUFFING) 8 bags in the trunk of the SUV and the rest of us in the car, there was simply nowhere for the board to go. Being that this is a ski town, we figured we would just rent a rack for the SUV and be on our way. Unfortunately, the only racks available were for skis. Upon asking the rental car agent if they had any rope or twine to secure the board to the standard roof rails, we discovered that rental car agencies frown upon this sort of thing. The agent explained that they could not provide any lashings because it was a liability issue. Luckily, I remembered I had my survival strap. I quickly unraveled the 16′ feet of mil spec paracord and we proceeded to lash the board to the racks. The board stayed safe and secure for the two hour ride up the mountain as well as the return trip a week later.

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